Kathmandu

[maribouquet]

The scent of sacred incense swirling up the steep slopes to Swayambhunath Stupa. Saffron, blessed sandalwood, Himalayan cedar and the miraculous lotus of the Buddha with chiuri bark and Nepalese spices.

imp: a sort of resinous, minty chewing gum scent
wet: antiseptic
dry: antiseptic

Totally bleh on me.

[tartchef]

Ooo, compare & contrast!

 

I got an imp of Kathmandu with my very first Lab order. I had very high hopes, and was somewhat put off by the rootbeer & BandAids opening I got... Once it dried down, it was a pleasant enough blend of sandalwood & faintly sweet spices. I wore it, but always a bit wistfully, pining for the saffron & smoke of my dreams.

 

Fast forward 3 years, and I get my hands on a bottle of Old Kathmandu... Now this is more like it. There's still a hint of antiseptic, but it's gone in a matter of seconds. Now I get a full rich dry cedar, with the sandalwood & lotus hovering in the background. After a few hours on my wrists, it fades to a faint but beautiful vanilla-like incense, strangely akin to White Rabbit & O on my skin; in the crooks of my elbows, the woods are still morphing, throwing off dry smoke & resins with a waft of bitter saffron lurking at the edges.

 

It's not an all-day oil - I can see reapplying this mid-afternoon, or layering another resin & woods-based oil on top for longer wear - nor is it a "public" scent, to me... It's one I'd wear when I knew I'd be alone all day & wanted to feel relaxed & focused.

 

This is akin to Sri Lanka, Cathedral, The Coiled Serpent & Mandrake, but somehow more austere & ascetic. It feels faintly medicinal, and I think I'll be wearing it more for meditative purposes than as fragrance...

[daiconharuko]

All I got from this was pure vicks vapor rub. Even when I was sick, I hated that smell. After a few hours its more incense and tolerable, but the initial viksness killed it for me.

[brit_brat100]

Imp: Very woody and spicy.

 

Wet: A cooling sensation comes to my nose. It still comes off pretty woodsy, but I think the lotus might be the sweetness I'm picking up.

 

Dry: Something warm and spicy...overall pleasant, which isn't what I expected at the beginning.

[Gwydion]

This has something I don't like in it, which is sad, since it overwhelms the cedar which I actually do like. Luckily this one fades fast on me skin.

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

I love this one, but it smells comically strange in the imp: Like cedar, bazooka bubblegum, bengay, and/or mint toothpaste!?!

 

On the skin: Wait for it...it takes a sec to mellow out. Be patient, I guarantee you it does, and will morph into something much more gorgeous, and is totally worth it!

 

Ok, sixty seconds in and it's right where I want it to be. Just like it's description, the image I get in my mind when I smell this on is of climbing (or maybe prostrating )up steep wooden steps on a mountain side towards a sacred place with incense burning and other sacred offerings. The saffron and Nepalese spices are heady and rich. The mountain smells freshly of fragrant cedar trees. I am not sure what "miraculous lotus of the Buddha" nor chiuri bark smell like, but I am sure that they along with (my favorite single note ever) sandalwood, add depth and complexity to this blend keeping me sniffing at my own wrist addictively and forever coming back for more!!! This scent is definitely on my desert island top five best scents ever! It's sweet and spicy, fresh and woodsy, exotic and heady with incense and, of course, sandalwood. This just might be my #1. I pray this never becomes dc'ed because I would spend the rest of my entire life seeking and searching for something, anything that smells even remotely as wonderful as this. Also, Kathmandu is like my #1 place I want to travel (aside from Prague) and if it actually smells like this, then I doubt I would ever leave!

 

Thank you, Beth! Sincerely, a million billion times, thank you! This one is indescribably gorgeous! I am madly in love with it! This is my one, my signature! I can't praise it highly enough!

 

[alliekat13]

On wet, it smells like Ben Gay, it's very astringent and medicinal. After awhile I start to smell the cedar, and incensy goodness. It reminds me of those Tibetan incenses that look like little ropes, and smell like cedarwood when you burn them. It's very spicy and exotic, it definetely brings to mind the peace of a Buddhist temple, smoky and filled with golden light, incense burning everywhere, the low chants of the Tibetan monks....This is not a scent that I would wear as a perfume, but maybe in a burner or something for meditational purposes.

[hkhm]

imp: spiced woods. this is a different sort of spice than usual, sort of creamy and sweet as well.

 

wet: sweet spiced cedar and sandalwood. theres also a menthol sort of scent as well.

 

dry: this dries to a simple spiced cedar. sort of like the inside of a cedar chest that's got all the christmas sweaters in it.

[SarahScent44]

In the imp, I get saffron, sandalwood, cedar - it's a very thick, sap-y scent.

 

There's something a little sweet when it's on the skin, hovering over the cedar scent; and then I get - minty?!

 

The dry-down is very subtle - woodsy and spicy. It's nice, but not my favorite.

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Cedar

 

Wet: It smells great in the bottle, but on me it smells rotten. Like rancid.

 

Drydown: I think perhaps what I'm smelling is the saffron, I don't get any cedar or wood.

I'll try it again as a room scent or when I get a scent locket.

 

In the bottle: 3.0 outta 5

On me: 1.0 outta 5

[Deiicide]

Kathmandu is an imp I've hung onto a while so I don't know how long it's been aged. With that being said, it's got a very strong cedar undertone to the blend. There is some incense but it's being overthrown by the cedar. I think my skin just amps the cedar, but that's just me.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Er... this smells exactly like Vicks Vaporub. I definitely didn't expect that. The throw on this is intense!

 

Dry: Alright, the Vaporub smell has faded a little bit, and I can smell a bit of cedar now. I still wouldn't say this is a pleasant scent.. but it smells better on the dry-down. It's also fading fairly fast, though I'm considering that a good thing.

 

 

On a scale of 1-5, I'd give this a 1.

We just weren't meant for each other!

[forspecial_plate]

Interesting.....for the first 5 minutes or so, this had that 'cola' smell that we talk about from time to time. I thought it was opoponax that did that, but maybe not. At any rate, this very quickly turned powdery for me, unfortunately. I wonder what makes it powdery. I'm guessing it's one of the spices or herbs, because Silk Road does the same thing and that has 'herbs' in the description.

 

I liked the very beginning 'cola' scent, but when it turned powdery I knew this one wasn't going to work for me.

[semuelle77]

I have been testing imp after imp. Every time, even when a scent does not work on me, I think "It nice, I can see why someone would wear it." I can always at least appriciate what Beth and her labbies have created.

 

Then I met Kathmandu. I have finally met a BPAL scent that I absolutely could not stand. I tried it in the morning, planning to wear it to teach. Thank god I did a sniff test before walking out the door. EW!!! My wrists smelled like perspiration. Stinky, middle of summer, underarm yuckiness. I don't know what notes (or combination of notes) created this horrible aroma. But wow.

 

Off to the swap pile. I really hope it works better on someone else.

[MaxwellDemon]

Judging by the notes, I was so sure I would love Kathmandu. I was a bit surprised when I first smelled it from the vial, it had such a pungent medicinal smell that I was reluctant to try it. On the skin, wet, it has that same impression, like clove oil and mineral ice, but the sandalwood and saffron are a bit more noticeable. Once dry, it smells like too much at once, like being in a room of vintage perfume, church incense, and the aged pages of old books. Sunday mass, bottled. It just feels like there's too much going on with each note competing for attention. After about an hour on the skin, most of the notes either disappear or soften, and it becomes a more clear, woody incense as the saffron, cedar, and mostly sandalwood still cling. Another hour later and it's nearly gone, with only the faint scent of aged paper left. With two hours of wear, total, Kathmandu does not have the kind of staying power I expect in an oil.

[donnatron]

Imp: Microbrewery cherry cola.

 

Wet: Oh cedar... cedar gets to rowdy on my skin it's not even funny. This is pure cedar with a bit of saffron sweetness.

 

Dry: The cedar is still rowdy, but it appears to have tired itself out and some of the other notes come out to play. It still has that bubbly effervescent cola feeling and I quite like it.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I have good memories of cherry cola from my childhood. Sometimes you just want to smell like a good memory and if I can wait out cedar's tantrum, I now have a great oil to evoke some good scent memories.

[savage_rose]

It starts out as smelling like fried chicken (WTF?), and moves straight to Vick's Vapo Rub. Uh, NO.

[greenranger]

In the imp, cedar...maybe sandalwood, and something floral.

 

On, the floral overpowers the rest till it dries.

 

Eventually, the cedar and sandalwood come out again. Then, it fades.

 

I tried this from someone else's bottle and got a nice lingering incense scent, that my little imp just is not reproducing. *sigh* I'll try holding onto it for a while and aging it.

 

 

--------

 

I thought I remembered trying this one before!

 

Anyhow, I received a frimp of this in my last order.

 

This time, I got a very different experience. Wet, I got a high clear note like wind in the mountains, and the smell of flowers...and ash? Burning incense?

 

The flowers hung around for a little while, but it eventually dried down to just incense.

 

The incense lingered around for about 4 hours.

 

This was such a different experience that I feel the need to track down the original imp to see if they are even the same perfume.

Edited May 28, 2008 by Aerinha

[ForeverSweet]

I shockingly really enjoy this scent, though I tend to use it when I am at a loss for other things to wear and just want something unique. Or when I need something to keep me in a calm mood.

 

In the imp: I can smell the "root-beer" smell that others have described. Along with that cool, minty smell of something almost medicine like. However, this scent is really calming to me. It is very minty and reminds me of burning certain incense scents. It is cool with an undertone of sweetness.

 

On wet: Very very very cool! This actually tickles my nose when I smell it because that minty scent is so strong. I can capture just a hint of cedar, however it is very faint. This is really like walking the steps on an icy moutain, hit by the scent of something holy. Incense and sweetness. It is cold and enticing. The throw is moderate and the scent lasts for the span of only a short evening.

 

Dry-down: This is still very sweet on me. It is a sweet floral and the saffron finally starts to shine through. The wet, cool note in this doesn't seem to leave me. This is the note that others described as "vics" or medicinal. However, this scent blends beautifully with the undertone of warm, delicious floral. This just ends up smelling like sugared, woodsy mint on me and I love it. The lotus also really begins to take note here.

 

 

I actually really love this scent just for its uniqueness on me. I usually wear it when I need something a little different than the usual. A very nice scent for winter.

[stillalive]

In the imp it smelled like coca cola... but on it smells sort of subdued and sandalwoody. It smells "refreshingly tingly" but more in a bubbly soda way than a menthol way... kind of like sandalwood soda.

 

Conclusion: alright, but not for me. I'll see if my best friend likes it (she's a sandalwood fiend!)

[Iceblink]

Sweet bubblegummy lotus at first. Then I smell cedar and sandalwood. I'd say this smells like gum stuck under a cedar table but...it's nicer than that! Overall it's a very sweet woody blend. I wouldn't wear it, but I'd love to have a closet that smells like it.

[taramarie]

On me, Kathmandu is mint, spice, and wood, like a really fancy toothpaste. Definitely not me.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Spicy cough syrup.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells like cough syrup at first sniff... very spicy cough syrup. When I dissect it though, it’s the combo of lotus, cedar and spices that are coming across that way. It’s sharp, medicinal, and heavy on the cedar.

 

After a little while: The lotus fades out of this and the cough syrup aspect goes away. What lingers is something dry but cloying and woody. The cedar and saffron are evident but there’s something thick here as well. Maybe like burned spices? It’s odd.

 

Overall Impressions: This scent just does not agree with me. I like lotus, but not when it’s combined with clashing notes. In this case, the woods and spices at first combine with it and make it very medicinal smelling, but it fades rather quickly. After that this scent enters into a cloying, woody phase that my nose just doesn’t like. Not a winner for me.

[goth_huntress]

I normally like the keynotes in this blend, but together they do nothing for me. Bummers.

[milo]

Woody, Incensey, medicinal. This has too much of a "bite" (maybe the wood?) for me right now, (lab fresh) but I can see the potential of it with a few months or a year. Reminds me a of Sherezade a bit, but with more spice.